January 31, 2020
Summary
2020 Vivien T. Thomas Lecture
The Saga of Vivien Thomas: Discrimination, Segregation, and Bias
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons launched a new named lecture at its 2020 Annual Meeting. It was in honor of Vivien Thomas, a black surgical technician with only a high school education who steadfastly designed and tested anastomosis of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery, resulting in the landmark "blue baby" operation in 1944 for children with tetralogy of Fallot.
The STS 2020 Vivien T. Thomas Lecture was given by Clyde W. Yancy, MD, vice dean for diversity and inclusion and chief of the Division of Cardiology at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Yancy also is a past president of the American Heart Association.